A Siren's Crown (Book Two in the APK Trilogy)

(18) What I Would Risk For You

He smirked lazily at me, slouching in his chair with effortless grace. He eyed me up and down, grinning at me slyly. “Well don’t you look nice?”

I scoffed. “Oh please, spare me.”

His grin widened as he leaned in towards me. “I am surprised you haven’t asked about your precious Bones yet you know. It won’t be too long before he is punished for his crimes; in the meantime, I do hope that they are treating him well.” He whispered the last part, his voice deadly, before he leaned back in his chair and clapped his hands. “Waiter!” He called, his voice bored.

I tried to conceal my rage at his words, out of the corner of my eye I could see Aranel smirking at me but I refused to give her the satisfaction of returning her gaze. Instead I looked out across the hall in search of … I let out a sigh of relief, Lacy and Nathaniel were both here, currently they were actually on the dance floor, laughing and enjoying themselves.

My Mother eventually noticed my gaze and she leaned over to speak to me quietly. “You have both grown so much.”

I looked at her startled, unsure for a moment. “You, you know about him?”

She smiled at me. “What, do you think I would not recognize my own son?” Her face turned sad for a moment. “I spoke to him separately, before we came here tonight, now isn’t the right time for the Kingdom to know that I have a half-breed son, not with all this turmoil. He understands of course, but it does hurt that I cannot acknowledge the existence of another of my beautiful children. The council has also had their say, and for now, they wish to keep him a secret. After all, I did betray my kind by laying with a human.”

My eyes widened as I came to understand the difficult position that she was in. “I am glad that you talked to him though.” I confessed.

She smiled. “So am I Circe. He has a twin you know, some-where out there, I left them both together but somehow they were separated.”

“I know,” I said quietly, “Queen Airocei told me.”

“Obsidian Bones may have information about his where-bouts.” She said quietly. “That was why I made the deal with him.”

I already knew this information from Aisling, but I felt as though this was something personal that she had chosen to share with me, and I didn’t want to ruin the moment.

She sighed, her eyes still on Nathaniel as he moved effortlessly around the dance floor, Lacy in tow. “He looks so like his Father,” she murmured, “so fragile, so human.”

She seemed to snap out of the trance she was in suddenly and I looked away, feeling like I had intruded on a personal moment. Smiling, she took my hand and I looked back to meet her eyes.

“That is enough of that.” She said brightly, although the sadness was slow to leave her eyes. “You must be starved, shall we eat?”

I nodded eagerly and at once, a waiter was at our side awaiting our order.

****

Several hours later and the festivities were still continuing. The music had become louder and more intoxicating as the evening had passed into night time and the night time into early morning. I had danced until my feet were sore and then danced some more, I had drunk wine; I had conversed with strangers, all of whom were so charming and so incredibly beautiful that I felt dizzy. Nathaniel and Lacy had gone to their respective bedrooms long ago, their faces dreamy with smiles that spoke of a night well spent. They had informed me, before they left, that the reason for Cobalt’s absence was that to many of the Water Kingdoms people, he would not be seen as innocent, and to see him walking around freely at a party would not sit well with most of them.